Wicked Cravings (The Phoenix Pack Series - By Suzanne Wright Page 0,147
hurting someone or running off. Unless her wolf calms, Jaime will fade until eventually she’s gone, and her wolf will turn rogue.”
“He’s right,” said Trey, his voice uncharacteristically sensitive. “The tranquilizer will wear off soon. If we’re going to move her, it has to be now. I know you don’t want to do this, Dante, but you have to. Do it for Jaime. Give her an opportunity to come back from this.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It had only taken an hour for the tranquilizer to wear off. Now—looking angrier than before—the black wolf paced in her crate, which was only twice as long and wide as her body. Several times she’d attacked it, looking for a weakness in the metal, and Dante had cringed every time her slender, graceful body smashed against it. Never had he felt more helpless or more like a bastard. For the past four years, her wolf had been caged, and now that she had finally surfaced again, she was back in a cage. And he’d been the one to put her in there.
She looked out at him with accusing, judgmental eyes. Guilt twisted his insides. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, although he knew she wouldn’t understand the words. Her response was a snarl that swore revenge. He heard as the door to the examination room opened behind him, but he only gave the visitor a sideways glance.
“Did she eat the meat?” asked Grace.
He shook his head. The wolf had snuffed at it.
“Does she recognize you?”
He was getting real sick of people speaking of his mate as though she was unbalanced. “Yes. I keep telling everyone—it’s not that she’s feral. She’s just scared and confused.”
“Sorry. It’s just that I heard she tried to attack you.”
“She smelled Laurie on me.”
“And why would she smell Laurie on you?” snapped Grace, giving him an accusatory look that was quite similar to the one his mate was wearing.
“See, now, if you’re reacting that way and I’m not your mate, is it any wonder that she wanted to draw blood?”
“I guess not. But you didn’t answer my question.”
He sighed. “Laurie threw herself at me when I was trying to get to Jaime’s wolf. She was afraid because of the duel between Jaime’s and Glory’s wolves, and she didn’t know what to do.” His wolf snarled at the memory.
“Afraid? Really?”
In response to the skepticism in her voice, he arched a brow questioningly.
“You don’t think that she did it on purpose?”
“Why would she?”
She gave him an impatient look. “Dante, honey, for a very observant person you have such a blind spot. The woman is jealous. I don’t know whether it’s because she’s still slightly possessive of you because you were once mated—”
“Partially mated.”
“—or whether it’s something else, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she did it on purpose so that there was no way Jaime would let you near her.”
“But she stayed with Jaime to fight when she could have just gone back to the caves with the rest of you.”
Grace shrugged. “I didn’t say I had all the answers. I just know the woman is jealous and doesn’t want you with Jaime. Did you know she came to your room just before the mating ceremony?
She wanted to see you alone. Dominic chased her off, and then Hope did her best to keep her away from you.”
He hadn’t known that, but at the moment he didn’t care to try to understand it. “Grace, I really can’t think of all this right now. All I care about is Jaime and making sure that she comes back.”
“Can you sense her?”
“Yes. She’s tired and irritated. Her wolf isn’t being very receptive to her right now.”
“She still feels unsafe. Unless that changes, she won’t pay much attention to what Jaime thinks or feels.”
He nodded. “I know. I’ve kept the number of visitors to a minimum. I figure the fewer people and scents around her, the better. It might help if she doesn’t think strange shifters are going to be hanging around what’s now effectively her den.” Only Taryn, Shaya, and Gabe had been inside the room. None of them had received a welcoming greeting from the black wolf. “I tried giving her one of my T-shirts that Jaime wears to bed, thinking she might find it comforting the way Jaime does. She ripped it to shreds.” Hearing Grace’s heavy sigh, he looked at her curiously. “What?”
“It’s just that seeing her like this…it reminds me of…”
“Louisa,” he easily supplied, since he’d been thinking the same thing. “Jaime won’t turn rogue.” It was